Printer ribbon cartridges for high speed printers are typically used with impact printers such as dot matrix printers, which cause extensive and rapid wear of the ribbon. These cartridges typically have an endless ribbon that is continuously inked. The ink is fed by gravity and capillary action from an inkwell or reservoir containing a hard felt mat through a felt wick to a brush that presses against a roller wheel used to advance the ribbon.
It has been found that such prior art printer cartridges are unsatisfactory in that they suffer from inconsistent print quality over the life of the cartridge. The print quality of prior art cartridges often begins to deteriorate after as little as several hours of continuous use, and continues deteriorating over the next several hours until the print becomes unreadable. This deterioration in print quality is attributable to wear of the ribbon, which becomes less capable of absorbing and transmitting ink as it wears. I have invented a solution to this problem as disclosed and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,943, issued Oct. 8, 1991, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. This patent application builds upon the solutions disclosed in my prior patent and provides a structure for a printer cartridge that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture.